Everett, Wash.
Published: Friday, July 10, 2009

Glorious Glass: Public gets chance Sunday to see what makes Pilchuck School famous

By Gale Fiege
Herald Writer

 STANWOOD -- It's no exaggeration that Pilchuck Glass School is world famous. It attracts some of the best glass artists to teach and learn during summers at the secluded north Snohomish County campus.

So it's surprising for school staffer Sean O'Neill when he hears Stanwood folks say they've never heard of Pilchuck.

"But maybe that's good, because if we had a lot of public attention, it might alter what we do," O'Neill, 26, said. "We work, play, eat and sleep here. When I drive up the gravel road to the school, it's like I'm leaving the world behind and I know something special is about to happen."

A once-a-year chance to tour Pilchuck Glass School comes Sunday afternoon, and tickets for the public still are available.

O'Neill, an artist who lives in Seattle during the winter, manages the school's hot shop. The dramatic, sprawling, gazebolike structure houses huge furnaces where artists turn molten the glass they will blow into all sorts of ­colorful ­vessels and shapes.

Heat from the furnaces pours out of the building, which has no walls.

"I have the best job here," he said. "It's great to be in the middle of all the action."

On a recent day, Sedro-Woolley artists Rik Allen and Shelley Muzylowski Allen taught glass blowing to a group of new students, many of whom had never worked with glass.

The glow from the furnace lit up the face of 20-year-old ceramics artist Kaden Myers of Sedalia, Mo.

Myers plans to move into glass art and counts himself lucky to be at the renowned school, which this year has attracted people from more than 16 foreign countries.

"It's awesome," he said. "It's really a place to expand your mind."

Cellular phones and Internet connections have changed the character of Pilchuck a bit, though the feeling of living in a small community remains, artist Mark Zirpel said. The school has room during its summer sessions for only 100 people, and half of those are students, he said.

A University of Washington art professor, Zirpel, 52, has been associated with the glass school for many years.

"Before I came here, I thought community just meant PTA meetings, soccer games and singing in church," Zirpel said. "Community here is people sharing common interests and generously encouraging each other. Here it's teamwork, beer and blow pipes. We're making (expletive) and to do that we have tune out the world."

Pilchuck's artistic director Ruth King agrees.

"There's an atmosphere here that, artistically, anything is possible," King said. "Pilchuck is my favorite place in the world."

The school had its beginnings in the early 1970s when art patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John Hauberg donated money and property on their tree farm to fund a dream by Seattle glass artist Dale Chihuly.

Arguably the most famous glass artist in the country, Chihuly still supports the school where he taught and maintained a studio for many years.

The campus, with its views of Skagit Bay, features rustic, cedar-roofed Northwest architecture. Visitors can tour the hot shop, the lodge and many of the studios.

Open-house activities include printmaking, sandblasting, glass blowing, music, movies, tours, food and sales of artworks by Pilchuck's instructors.

Pilchuck Glass School recently received a $50,000 economic stimulus grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant helps the school maintain its status as the most comprehensive educational center in the world for glass artists, King said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA